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Commentaries

If you're a regular listener to NPR news programs, you're probably familiar with the occasional brief commentary during the morning or evening news programs by experts in various fields; people providing insight into public affairs, observations on the arts, and thoughts on how we live. This page contains transcripts and/or audio recordings of local commentaries that have aired on WYSU.

The Day After the Election

Published: Nov 10, 2016

Commentator: Gayle Catinella

Transcript:

I am not worried about November 8. On election day, people will walk into their local polling places, see their neighbors, talk about their lives. They will see Republicans and Democrats, people that they know and trust, standing guard over a process that has been tested and tried and almost always turns out OK. People who go to vote will feel proud that they have done their civic duty. All will be well.

Why do we make decisions based on fear?

Published: Jul 14, 2016

Commentator: The Reverend Gayle Catinella commentary for 07/14/2016

Transcript:

I think we are asking the wrong question. When we hear the horrifying reports of the killings of black men and attacks on police officers, we want to know who to blame. There has to be someone at fault. But the deeper question is, why do we make decisions in our society based on fear. Because fear changes us, it makes normally good people make very bad choices, and it creates an atmosphere where everyone is a potential enemy.

Prison, America's 'new asylums'

Published: Jun 19, 2014

Commentator: Matthew T. Mangino

Transcript:

Prisons, America’s ‘new asylums’

A new report by the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit dedicated to the treatment of the mentally ill, found that the number of individuals with serious mental illness in prisons and jails now exceeds the number in state psychiatric hospitals by a factor of ten.In 2012, there were more than 356,000 inmates with severe mental illness in prisons and jails nationwide. There were only 35,000 mentally ill individuals in state psychiatric hospitals.

The Cost of Higher Education

Published: Mar 27, 2014

Commentator: Tom Shipka

Transcript:

Let’s begin with a question. Which of the following rose in cost the most over the past thirty years: housing, medical care, or higher education? The correct answer is higher education. (1) Over this period, housing went up 375%, medical care 600%, and higher education an astonishing 1,120%. (2) At the same time, financial aid provided by the federal government and institutions of higher education also shot up but so did “net cost,” that is, what students and their families must pay after grants, scholarships, and tax credits are subtracted. (3)

World Water Day

Never before has the flush of a toilet sounded so lovely. Like the burbling brook after weeks of drought, running water is a welcome gift on the first evening of the New Year.

No water? A voice at the other end of the line told us repairmen were working overtime to fix the problem but they didn’t know how long it would take. My heart went out to the crews repairing the line in the bitter cold on a holiday.

Fracking

Published: Feb 7, 2014

Commentator: Judy Vershum

Transcript:

I find it disturbing that people who rely on the Meander Reservoir for their drinking water aren’t outraged by ODNR’s permitting of frack wells in our protected watershed. I suppose it is possible that they don’t know where their water comes from. Heads up, people of Canfield, Boardman, Austintown, Youngstown, Niles, Jackson Township etc. It’s more likely that they drank the industry and ODNR Kool-Aid, and believe that unconventional shale gas hydro fracking is safe—it is not. They no doubt believe there are plenty of regulations in place that will protect them.